About half an hour later, the thick mist covering the sea gradually dispersed, along with the illusions made from attractive meals.
With the illusions gone, all people on The Redbud who had been dominated by their hunger for food also woke up. A terrible commotion soon followed. Some people enjoyed an oily feast in the illusion and found themselves munching on a desk leg with several teeth gone. When someone realized they had been biting on their companions, blood already filled their mouths. There were even people eating burning candles. When they woke up, their hair, eyebrows, face, tongue, and lips were already burnt for good.
It was a disaster for every common man on The Redbud!
To supernaturals, it was only a harmless game. No one died anyway, so none of the guides spared the effort to alert people.
In the end, only common people who could not control their own fates suffered.
When the mist completely cleared, a children’s chorus came from southeast of the ship.
Every supernatural looked towards its source.
An elegant building appeared on the sea behind the vanishing mist.
The building had a colorful whelk shell as its roof and childish, twisting wall structures. Rainbow balloons of various shapes filled the sky. Dogs, hearts, cats… The air was filled with a sweet smell. All of these combined gave Barbie’s Restaurant a dazzling look. It was like a princess castle in a fairytale, everything was created in a little girl’s style.
“There it is… Barbie’s Restaurant.” Sunders looked at the brightly-colored, amusement park-like structure, and muttered.
Barbie’s Restaurant was a fantasy castle supported by a large, round base. Ripples were flowing around it, and the joyful waves dancing in the water appeared as if they were welcoming everyone.
Everyone apart from Sunders and Flora saw Barbie’s Restaurant for the first time and they were all shocked speechless by the castle-like restaurant.
Then, all males shook their heads.
Heroline, as a female, also frowned a bit.
They were all complaining about the rumored gourmet wizard for having such a bizarre taste inside their minds.
La, La, Lalala…
Bum, Bum, Pump-a-rum…
A music band made up of two teams of toy soldiers wearing red and white uniforms which were about the same height as everyone’s knees suddenly appeared from the colorful front door of the restaurant.
The team on the left had iron drums, while the one on the right was striking gongs decorated by red belts.
During their music, the toy soldiers formed into two lines. With two loud, united goose steps, they put away their instruments and made a military salute towards the center, as if waiting to be inspected by their commander.
“Neee—haha! Neee—hahahaha!”
A burst of strange laughter came from the door, followed by a figure walking with weird, splayed out feet.
When the splaying weirdo stepped out of the door, he quickly performed a ballet, made a 1080-degree spinning move in front of everyone, and finally ended his performance with a gentleman-like chest salute.
“Neehahahaha! Welcome, honored guests, to Barbieeeeee’s Restaurant!!!”
High-pitched, exaggerated voice with strange break points came from the splay-feet weirdo. When he was finished, the toy soldiers on the sides began their drumbeat. Balloons flew into the air, colorful ribbons and confetti fell from the sky.
After the ribbons had landed and everyone could finally shift their eyesights away from the bright colors, they could finally look at the weirdo clearly.
It was a small, humanoid creature with long limbs and an exceptionally large head.
Triangular head, rising eye corners, and spike hair like a hedgehog. He was grinning so widely it almost split his face in two. Several long whiskers like those of beasts also grew from his cheeks. Combining everything together, the creature was both funny and creepy.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you again, to Barbie’s Restaurant!” The weirdo leaped into the air, made another 360-degree ballet spin, and took out an alchemy microphone from God-knew-where. He landed on the ground with a front-split, while introducing himself, “Neehaha! I am the guard captain of Barbie’s Restaurant, and the one responsible for welcoming guests, Tom Weasel!”
“…”
Everyone was rendered speechless by the bizarre performance.
When Tom Weasel realized that no one was responding, he quickly yelled to the toy soldiers nearby, and without a tiny bit of embarrassment, he said, “Applause, you junk!”
Clap clap clap… Chaotic, scattered clapping came from the toy soldiers.
Tom Weasel made another 720-degree ballet spin in satisfaction and ended his act with a grand jeté. Next, he stepped to the high platform closest to everyone using his usual splayed-feet.
“Showy, exaggerating, and childish,” Sunders pulled the edge of his top-hat down to his forehead and chuckled coldly, “Greya’s strange taste never changed.”
Tom Weasel heard Sunders’ words and looked towards him, who had been standing on the back of his demon falcon.
“Neehahaha, Mister Sunders! Weasel was wondering why he felt something from the nightmare realm. Sir, your aura grew even cryptically stronger compared to last time we met on the Soul Upland!” Tom Weasel exclaimed with an exaggerated expression. He even performed another ballet move when mentioning “stronger”.
Sunders did not reply. He simply looked away without paying attention to Weasel anymore. Everyone from Barbie’s Restaurant was as insane as Weasel, one could not communicate with them using common sense.
Tom Weasel did not mind Sunders’ cold reaction. He kept leaping and spinning with his eyes closed.
When the sunlight reached the front door and the chorus was replaced by sea waves, Tom Weasel made another gentleman salute towards everyone.
“My honored guests, it is time to enter,” said Tom Weasel. His voice suddenly turned serious.
With that, the elegant restaurant door slowly opened. A strange smell came out.
It was not delicious, yet the smell seemed to carry magic with it. It fiddled around everyone’s sense of smell, causing them to swallow hard.
A plain smell had drawn out everyone’s appetite.
“Now this is the real thing, not the fake sense triggered by using dirty tricks to stimulate your brains to release desire in the illusion,” Sabot explained to everyone with a smile, “Greya is a real genius. Looks like we’ll have a real feast today.”
While explaining, Sabot followed Sunders towards Barbie’s Restaurant.
Sunders walked into the colorful door with a plain face. Flora was following behind. She suddenly turned around and gave Sabot a sweet smile.
Before Sabot could understand what it meant, the toy soldiers leaped in and crossed their guns and swords in front of everyone, stopping further visitors.
Being repelled by the toy soldiers while the juniors were still looking at him, Sabot felt his face burning with embarrassment and rage.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Sabot gave Tom Weasel a cold, angered stare. “You have a problem with me?”